"One thing is clear. These posters are trouble."
That's the message artist Benny Nemer gave in an audio letter to Jane Becker Nelson, director and curator of the Flaten Art Museum at St. Olaf College.
And for good reason.
For the the first time in 70 years, the college museum in Northfield is exhibiting to the public pieces from a rare but provocative collection of historical artifacts: the Tetlie Collection of World War II Propaganda Posters.
The collection consists of 147 posters and broadsides circulated throughout Europe during World War II by Nazi authorities to pacify, persuade and terrify occupied populations.
The posters — ranging from ugly anti-Semitic images to announcements of executions of resistance fighters — were collected by U.S. Army historian Duncan Emrich as Europe was being liberated by Allied forces. They were later acquired by art collector Richard Tetlie, who decades later gave them to his alma mater when he died.
The exhibition is the culmination of seven years of work at the college to conserve the posters while grappling with the ethical implications of keeping and displaying them and allowing access for educational purposes. The number of artifacts on display has been reduced to seven posters and three broadsheets and the exhibit prohibits photography of the posters to prevent their misuse.
"Our intention in preserving, exhibiting and teaching with the posters is not to perpetuate the narratives contained within the propaganda, but to critically examine the dark motives and dire consequences of artful propaganda and ensure the lessons of one of the worst atrocities in modern history are not forgotten," said Becker Nelson.
